Profile of Inuit

There are about 154,000 Inuit living in all the northern countries of the world. About 30%, or 45,000, of them live in Canada, and make up about 0.15% of Canada's population. Inuit are Canada's northernmost people. Historically, Inuit were called Eskimos by Europeans, but this name is no longer in use. Inuit people live in all the world's nations that have far northern territory.

This ethnic group lives over a wide area of northern Canada. Eight groupings of Inuit may be identified, roughly from east to west:

Northern Canada's food resources cannot sustain a large population, and its harsh climate discourages many people from living there. Inuit were traditionally hunters and gatherers. This means that they travelled across the north, following the animals in their seasonal migrations. Why? Because the Inuit seasonal round was determined by the wildlife they could hunt on the land or in the oceans, rivers, and lakes of the Arctic. Caribou, whale, seal, polar bear, wolf, fox, and muskox populations provided major sources of nourishment and nutrition. As well, most Inuit clothing was made from the skins of these animals.

Although most Inuit live in permanent settlements today, traditionally a hunter-gatherer culture needed to be mobile. Inuit found that living off arctic wildlife required travel in small groups. Thus, they were famous for the teams of dogs and for igloos. These were their dome-shaped snow houses. Temporary winter dwellings, they could be made by an experienced Inuk from carved blocks of snow in a matter of an hour or less. Body heat and whale oil provided sufficient heat to keep the interior temperature of an Igloo at or above the freezing point (0°C, 32°F) in any weather. Series of connected igloos could accommodate from fifteen to twenty people.

Some Inuit still follow the life of the hunter-gatherer but far more live in permanent settlements and have adopted many of the cultural traits of mainstream Canada. Many Inuit have become administrators, business people, school teachers, nurses, broadcasters, politicians, and civil servants.

Perhaps the two most widely recognized Canadian symbols are the Mountie and Inuit art, especially Inuit print making and Inuit sculpture. Of these two, sculpture has a long tradition but print making is relatively recent because most of the Arctic has no trees and so there is no natural supply of paper.

Soapstone and ivory carvings often depict activities of the hunter-gatherer culture, such as the seal hunt. Beginning in the 1950s, these carvings caught the imagination of southern Canadians and collectors of primitive art internationally. Today, there is a strong market demand for Inuit to supply the Canadian and international markets.

This is the case, as well, for Inuit prints, which have grown into a highly desired Canadian art form. Print making was taken up by Inuit as an art form only after it was introduced to the Inuit of Cape Dorset (Kingnait) in 1957 by a southerner, James A. Houston. Houston, who studied print making in Japan, encouraged Inuit to form co-operatives for the production of their drawings. Early prints depicted the animals, birds, and marine life of arctic life, but more and more signs of modern technology are now included: airplanes, helicopters, and snowmobiles. Some well known print making families are Ashevak, Pudlat, and Qinnuayuak.

Part of the distinctiveness of Inuit as a cultural group in Canada is the result of the political process. The Government of Canada did not govern Inuit under the Indian Act, and so they remained a distinct group of Native people. In 1939, a legal decision forced the Government of Canada into a role of responsibility for the welfare of Inuit, whose culture was being overrun by mainstream Canadian society.

This responsibility evolved only very gradually. However, at the end of the last decade, it was altered in the eastern Arctic when Inuit negotiated the new territorial jurisdiction called Nunavut. Nunavut, which means "Our Land," came into being in April 1999. It is a self-governing territory within Canada. The territory comprises the vast northeasternmost portions of Canada.

Inuktitut (also spelled Inuuttituut) is the mother tongue of the Inuit. However, the language is spoken by only about 65% of all Inuit. Six different dialects of this language are spoken across arctic Canada.